Artists / Gallery

Carl Moll was born in 1861 in Vienna as the son of Julius, cashier of the National Library, and the baker's daughter Rosina. Carl Moll's mother encouraged the son's talent for painting after the early death of his father. Initially he received private lessons from Carl Haunold, later at the academy from Christian Griepenkerl.

After only one year he entered Emil Jakob Schindler's studio as a private student. From the master and his older fellow students in the studio, Marie Egner and Olga Wisinger-Florian, Moll was instructed in plein-air painting, which he subsequently used and interpreted in the typical and unmistakable way. Starting out from mood impressionism, he turned to the secessionist painting style. A pastel colour palette is characteristic of this period.

Moll's further fate, both in his private and professional life, was closely linked to the famous Mood Impressionist Schindler and his family. Three years after the master's premature death, Carl Moll married his widow Anna and became Alma's stepfather, later to become Mahler.

In 1897 Moll was co-founder of the Vienna Secession and organized important exhibitions. He encouraged and supported young colleagues and was artistic director of the legendary Galerie Miethke. In 1931 he was awarded the Great Golden State Medal and honorary citizenship of the City of Vienna.

Moll was one of those who pushed for the foundation of the Modern Gallery, now the Austrian Gallery Belvedere, which succeeded in 1903. With the Klimt Group he left the Secession in 1905 and promoted the group as artistic director of the Galerie Miethke, where he organized several exhibitions of foreign artists until 1912, supported the exhibition of the works of female artists and brought works by Vincent van Gogh to Vienna, which at the time were largely met with rejection.

Afterwards he devoted himself again more to painting, but also remained active as an art dealer. In 1930 he returned to the Secession, which organized a large exhibition for his 70th birthday in 1931. Moll was also active as an art writer; his most important work is probably the biography of Emil Jakob Schindler, published in 1930. Moll supported Oskar Kokoschka and his work and organised an exhibition in 1937 on the occasion of his 50th birthday in the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (today: MAK - Museum of Applied Art) - at a time when Kokoschka was already considered a "degenerate artist" in Germany. Carl Moll died in Vienna in 1945.